System, method and computer program product for providing a team object in association with an object

ABSTRACT

In accordance with embodiments, there are provided mechanisms and methods for providing a team object in association with an object. These mechanisms and methods for providing a team object in association with an object can allow for centralized management of a team in association with an object. For example, members of the team may be automatically identified (e.g. without manual intervention) for receiving notifications in association with an object.

CLAIM OF PRIORITY

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.12/559,265, filed Sep. 14, 2009, which claims the benefit of U.S.Provisional Patent Application 61/096,555 entitled “Method and Systemfor Providing Case Teams in an On-Demand CRM System,” by Tsai et al.,filed Sep. 12, 2008, the entire contents of which are incorporatedherein by reference.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materialwhich is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentor the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and TrademarkOffice patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrightrights whatsoever.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The current invention relates generally to interested parties associatedwith objects, and more particularly to defining interested parties inassociation with the objects.

BACKGROUND

The subject matter discussed in the background section should not beassumed to be prior art merely as a result of its mention in thebackground section. Similarly, a problem mentioned in the backgroundsection or associated with the subject matter of the background sectionshould not be assumed to have been previously recognized in the priorart. The subject matter in the background section merely representsdifferent approaches, which in and of themselves may also be inventions.

In conventional database systems, parties interested in aspects of anobject (e.g. a data object, such as modifications to the object, issueswith the object, etc. have generally been managed in a de-centralizedmanner. For example, parties with an interest in receiving notificationsabout a modification to an object, etc, have traditionally been providedwith such notification by manually selecting each party to notify eachtime a notification is to be made.

BRIEF SUMMARY

In accordance with embodiments, there are provided mechanisms andmethods for providing a team object in association with an object. Thesemechanisms and methods for providing a team object in association withan object can allow for centralized management of a team in associationwith an object. For example, members of the team may be automaticallyidentified (e.g. without manual intervention) for receivingnotifications in association with the object.

In an embodiment and by way of example, a method is provided forproviding a team object in association with an object. In use, a requestto add a team to an object managed by a multi-tenant on-demand databaseservice is received. Further, a team object associated with the objectis created for adding the team to the object.

While the present invention is described with reference to an embodimentin which techniques for providing a team object in association with anobject are implemented in an application server providing a front endfor a multi-tenant database on-demand service, the present invention isnot limited to multi-tenant databases or deployment on applicationservers. Embodiments may be practiced using other databasearchitectures, i.e., ORACLE®, DB2® and the like without departing fromthe scope of the embodiments claimed.

Any of the above embodiments may be used alone or together with oneanother in any combination. Inventions encompassed within thisspecification may also include embodiments that are only partiallymentioned or alluded to or are not mentioned or alluded to at all inthis brief summary or in the abstract. Although various embodiments ofthe invention may have been motivated by various deficiencies with theprior art, which may be discussed or alluded to in one or more places inthe specification, the embodiments of the invention do not necessarilyaddress any of these deficiencies. In other words, different embodimentsof the invention may address different deficiencies that may bediscussed in the specification. Some embodiments may only partiallyaddress some deficiencies or just one deficiency that may be discussedin the specification, and some embodiments may not address any of thesedeficiencies.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a method for providing a team object in association with anobject in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 2 shows a method for sending notifications to members of a teamutilizing a team object, in accordance with another embodiment.

FIG. 3 shows a system for providing a team object in association with anobject, in accordance with yet another embodiment.

FIG. 4 illustrates a block diagram of an example of an environmentwherein an on-demand database service might be used.

FIG. 5 illustrates a block diagram of an embodiment of elements of FIG.4 and various possible interconnections between these elements.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION General Overview

Systems and methods are provided for providing a team object inassociation with an object.

To date, parties interested in aspects of an object have generally beenmanaged in a de-centralized manner, such that identification of theparties for sending notifications to the parties has generally beenperformed manually. Thus, mechanisms and methods for providing a teamobject in association with an object. These mechanisms and methods forproviding a team object in association with an object can allow forcentralized management of a team in association with an object, forexample, such that members of the team may be automatically identified(e.g. without manual intervention) for receiving notifications inassociation with the object.

Next, mechanisms and methods for providing a team object in associationwith an object will be described with reference to exemplaryembodiments.

FIG. 1 shows a method 100 for providing a team object in associationwith an object, in accordance with one embodiment. As shown in operation102, a request to add a team to an object managed by a multi-tenanton-demand database service is received. With respect to the presentdescription, the multi-tenant on-demand database service may include anyservice that relies on a database system that is accessible over anetwork, in which various elements of hardware and software of thedatabase system may be shared by one or more tenants (e.g.organizations, customers, users, etc.) of the multi-tenant on-demanddatabase service. For instance, a given application server maysimultaneously process requests for a great number of customers, and agiven database table may store rows for a potentially much greaternumber of customers. Various examples of such a multi-tenant on-demanddatabase service will be set forth in the context of differentembodiments that will be described during reference to subsequentfigures.

Accordingly, the object may be managed by the multi-tenant on-demanddatabase service such that the object is stored by and/or otherwise madeaccessible to by the multi-tenant on-demand database service (e.g. formodifying the object, using the object, etc.). Optionally, the objectmay be stored by the multi-tenant on-demand database service for use byat least one tenant of the multi-tenant on-demand database service.

In one embodiment, the object may include a data object. In anotherembodiment, the object may be of a particular type. For example, theobject may store data of the particular type. In one exemplaryembodiment, the object may include a case object (e.g. an objectindicative of a case).

Additionally, the team requested to be added to the object may include ateam of members, such as a single member or a plurality of members. Tothis end, the request may be to add members to the object. Moreinformation regarding such members will be described in more detailbelow.

In one embodiment, the request may be received by the multi-tenanton-demand database service from a tenant of the multi-tenant on-demanddatabase service (e.g. via a network). In another embodiment, a userassociated with the tenant (e.g. provided with access to themulti-tenant on-demand database service via the tenant) may include anyuser with permissions to modify the object. For example, the user mayinclude an administrator (e.g. owner, etc.) of the object. In yetanother embodiment, the request may be received utilizing an interface(e.g. user interface) of the multi-tenant on-demand database service.

Further, a team object associated with the object is created for addingthe team to the object. See operation 104. In the context of the presentdescription, the team object may include any object defining the teamrequested to be added to the object. Accordingly, in one embodiment, theteam object may be created by defining the team and including thedefined team in a single team object associated with the object. As anoption, the team object may be created utilizing a user interface (e.g.of the multi-tenant on-demand database service). In one embodiment, theteam object may be created (and subsequently modified and/or deleted) byany user with full access to the object, such as an owner of the object,the owner's managers, administrators, the multi-tenant on-demanddatabase service (e.g., via assignment rules described below), etc.

For example, the team object may define the team by defining at leastone member (e.g. each member included in the team). In variousembodiments, the members may include users (e.g. associated with atenant of the multi-tenant on-demand database service), queues, customerportal users, partner portal users, contacts (e.g. without an associateduser, such that the contact may not be associated with a tenant of themulti-tenant on-demand database service), etc. Thus, as an option, themembers of the team may be defined in the team object by listing anidentifier (e.g. name, etc.) of each member of the team in the teamobject.

As another example, the team object may define the team by assigning(e.g. in the team object) a role to each member defined in the teamobject. The role may be associated with responsibilities, permissions,etc. (e.g. with respect to the object). In various embodiments, the rolemay define notification settings for a member assigned to the role,sharing settings for a member assigned to the role, visibility for amember assigned to the role, etc., as described in more detail below.Table 1 illustrates an example of various roles that may be assigned tomembers of a team for defining a team object. It should be noted thatsuch roles are set forth for illustrative purposes only, and thus shouldnot be construed as limiting in any manner.

TABLE 1 De- Shar- Role fault? Notification ing Visibility Support Rep YAll Read/ Customer Portal Write Engineer N All Read Private PrimaryCustomer N Public Comments, Read Customer Portal Contact Status ChangesInterested Party N Public Comments Read Customer Portal

As noted above, notification settings may be defined for reach role. Thenotification settings may indicate the actions associated with theobject of which a member assigned to the role is to be notified. Forexample, the notification settings of a role may indicate that a memberassigned to the role is to be notified of email, comments, activities,and status changes (e.g. case closed, etc.) that are associated with theobject. Of course, as an option, each role may be configured to preventa member assigned to such role from receiving notifications regardingemail, comments, activities, status changes, etc. that were initiated bythat member. To this end, upon detecting an action associated with theobject, a notification may optionally be sent to the member based on thenotification settings assigned thereto via the role.

As also noted above, sharing settings may be defined for each role. Thesharing settings may optionally only apply to the role if the memberassigned to the role is a user (e.g. and not if the member is a contact,etc.). In various embodiments, the sharing settings may include noaccess permissions to the object, read only access permissions to theobject, read and write access permissions to the object, and full accessto the object. In one exemplary embodiment, a role indicative of anowner of the object may give a member of that role full access to theobject, and thus may not necessarily be limited by the read-only, etc.sharing settings.

Further, as noted above, visibility settings may be defined for eachrole. The visibility settings may define whether a member of aparticular role is visible to other members, the public, portal users,etc. For example, the visibility settings for a role may includeinternal only whereby the member assigned to the role is only visible toother members of the same portal as the member, internal and partnerportals whereby the member assigned to the role is only visible to othermembers of the same portal as the member and members of portals that arepartners to the portal of the member, internal and all portals wherebythe member assigned to the role is visible to other members of the sameportal as the member, members of portals that are partners to the portalof the member, and members of customer portals.

To this end, as described above, the team object may be created bydefining members in the team object and by assigning within such teamobject each of such members to a role. Optionally, the members and/orroles may be manually configured. As another option, the members and/orroles may be selected from predefined members and/or roles.

Still yet, the team object may be created from one of a plurality ofpredefined team objects, in one embodiment. For example, the predefinedteam object may include a template of members and roles assigned to eachmember. As an option, the team object may be created from the predefinedteam object by referencing the predefined team object. In this way, anychanges made to the predefined team object may be automaticallypropagated to the created team object. Of course, if the team object isdefined using the predefined team object, it should be noted that anychanges made directly to a member definition in the created team objectmay sever the reference between the member definition in the createdteam object and the member definition in the predefined team object,such that changes made to the member definition in the predefined teamobject may be prevented from being automatically propagated to themember definition in the created team object.

Moreover, the team object may be created based on predefined assignmentrules. The predefined assignment rules may indicate for a particularobject a predefined member to be automatically included in an associatedteam object, in one embodiment. For example, a predefined assignmentrule may indicate that a member assigned to an owner role for the object(e.g. in a table of the multi-tenant database service, etc.) is to beautomatically defined in the team object. Once the team object iscreated, the predefined assignment rules may further includes a rule forremoving a member definition in the team object once the member isdeactivated from the multi-tenant on-demand database service.

As another example, a predefined assignment rule may indicate that amember defined in another team object with a particular role is to beautomatically added to the team object being created in association withthe object. It should be noted that the other team object describedabove may include a team object associated with another object, such asan account, where the other object is optionally associated with theobject for which the team object is being created.

The predefined assignment rule may also indicate the role to be assignedto such automatically added member. If the member defined in the otherteam object that is referenced by the predefined assignment rule isdeleted from the other team object, the predefined assignment rule mayoptionally automatically be deleted by virtue of the reference thereinto the member defined in the other team object that was deleted.Additionally, a member defined in the team object may be deleted if themember definition in the other team is modified or deleted.

In another embodiment, the predefined assignment rules may indicate fora particular object a predefined team object from which an associatedteam object is to be created. In one embodiment after the team objectassociated with the object has already been created, members defined bythe team object may be replaced with members defined by the assignmentrules (e.g. if the object is being reassigned). In another embodiment,after the team object associated with the object has already beencreated, members defined by the team object may be added to with membersdefined by the assignment rules. Of course, whether the memberdefinition is replaced or added to, as described above, may depend on anoption that is selected for the object.

Once the team object associated with the object is created, the teamobject may be utilized in any desired manner. For example, the teamobject may be utilized for automatically transmitting notifications tomembers defined in the team object in response to modifications, etc. tothe object. In one embodiment, upon a particular type of modificationmade to the object (e.g. a comment added to the object, a change instatus of the object, etc.), the team object may be utilized toautomatically determine which role requires a notification for thatparticular type of modification and further which member is assigned tothat role in the team object. Once the member is identified, the membermay be accordingly notified of the modification made to the object.

As an option, the role assigned to the member may further define a timein which the member is to be notified of the modification made to theobject. For example, the role may define that the member is to receivethe notification immediately after the modification is made to theobject or that the member is to receive the notification via aonce-daily notification sent to the member which includes an aggregateof all notifications to be sent to the member that accumulatedthroughout that day.

FIG. 2 shows a method 200 for sending notifications to members of a teamutilizing a team object, in accordance with another embodiment. As anoption, the present method 200 may be carried out in the context of thefunctionality of FIG. 1. Of course, however, the method 200 may becarried out in any desired environment. The aforementioned definitionsmay apply during the present description.

As shown in decision 202, it is determined whether a request to add ateam to an object is received. In the context of the presentdescription, the object is managed by a multi-tenant on-demand databaseservice. To this end, the request may be received by the multi-tenanton-demand database service from a tenant of a multi-tenant on-demanddatabase service.

In one embodiment, the request to add the team to the object may bereceived utilizing a user interface associated with the object. Forexample, the user interface may be utilized for managing the object.Further, the request to add the team may include any request to defineteam members to which notifications are to be sent in association withthe management of the object.

If it is determined that the request to add the team is not received,the method 200 waits for such a request to be received. If, however, therequest to add the team is received, identifiers of members of the teamare received. See operation 204. Such identifiers may include names ofthe members and/or any other identifiers uniquely identifying themembers. Optionally, the member identifiers may each identify an objectrepresentative of a member.

In one embodiment, the member identifiers may be received from a manualentry by the tenant. In another embodiment, the member identifiers maybe each be received. via selection from a predefined list of memberidentifiers available to be defined in the team. In yet anotherembodiment, the member identifiers may be received as a group viaselection of a predefined team object (e.g. a team object templatealready including member identifiers).

In still yet another embodiment, the member identifiers may be receivedas a result of executing a rule which indicates the member identifiersto be defined in the team. Optionally, the rule may indicate whichmember identifiers to be defined in the team based on the object towhich the team is requested to be added. Just by way of example, therule may indicate that an owner of the object is to be automaticallyadded to the team, such that upon execution of the rule, a memberidentifier of such owner may be received.

In one exemplary embodiment, a social networking company may be a tenantof the multi-tenant on-demand database service and may use themulti-tenant on-demand database service for customer support operations.The social networking company may receive cases regarding childendangerment in the form of case objects utilizing the multi-tenanton-demand database service. The social networking company may add a teamto the case objects, such that members of the team may be automaticallynotified upon a change made to a case object. For example, the membersof the team may include a filer of the case (e.g. who may or may not bea customer portal user), a legal department of the social networkingcompany (e.g. who may or may not be a user of the multi-tenant on-demanddatabase service), and the attorney general's office of the state inwhich the case was filed (e.g. who may be a contact).

Furthermore, as shown in operation 206, a role for each member isreceived. Each role may each indicate notification settings for themember associated with (e.g. assigned to) the role. For example, therole may indicate the circumstances under which the associated member isto receive a notification, such as whether the associated member is toreceive a notification when a comment is posted to the object, when thestatus of the object is marked as closed, etc.). As another example, therole may indicate the communication channel (e.g., email, etc.) viawhich the associated member is to receive the notifications (e.g. byindicating the member address to which such communications are to besent, etc.). Optionally, roles may each identify an objectrepresentative of the notifications settings for a member.

In one embodiment, the roles may be received from a manual entry by thetenant. In another embodiment, the roles may each be received viaselection from a predefined list of roles available to be defined in theteam (e.g., where the predefined roles are configured by anadministrator). In yet another embodiment, the roles may be received asa group via selection of a predefined team object (e.g. a team objecttemplate already including member identifiers and associated roles).

In still yet another embodiment, the roles may be received as a resultof executing a rule which indicates the roles to be defined for themembers in the team. Optionally, the rule may indicate which role is tobe defined for a particular member. Just by way of example, the rule mayindicate that an owner of the object is to be automatically added to theteam and assigned a role in which notifications of any change made tothe object is sent to the owner, such that upon execution of the rule, amember identifier of such owner may be received along with a roleassigned to such member which indicates that notifications of any changemade to the object are to be sent to the owner.

In accordance with the exemplary embodiment described above in which thesocial networking company is a tenant of the multi-tenant on-demanddatabase service and adds a team to the case objects, the socialnetworking company may also define the roles for each of the membersincluded in the team. For example, the legal department of the socialnetworking company may be associated with a role in which it is notifiedof every comment or email pertaining to the case object. As anotherexample, the attorney general's office may be associated with a role inwhich it is only notified when the case object is marked with a dosedstatus.

As also shown, a team object is created using the identifiers of themembers and the roles. See operation 208. In one embodiment, the teamobject may include therein the member identifiers. In anotherembodiment, the team object may include the roles. In yet anotherembodiment, the team object may include a mapping (e.g. assignment) ofeach member identifier to one of the roles. In this way, the team objectmay define the members of the team and the role of each member of theteam.

As an option, once the team object is created the members of the team asdefined by the team object may be automatically notified of theirinclusion in the team. Furthermore, any members subsequently added tothe team via the team object may also be automatically notified upontheir inclusion in the team. In one optional embodiment, thenotification may be generated via a notification template (e.g. emailtemplate) selected by the administrator. Of course, it should be notedthat such notification may only be sent if the administrator selects asetting of the team object that such notification be automatically sent.

Still yet, as shown in operation 210, the team object is associated withthe object. In one embodiment, the team object may be associated withthe object by including a reference to the team object in the object. Ofcourse, however, the team object may be associated with the object inany desired manner.

Once the team object is created and associated with the object, an entrymay be added to a user interface of the multi-tenant on-demand databaseservice (e.g. a user interface for managing the objects, a userinterface managing an account of the user, etc.). In one embodiment, theentry may be selected by a user for receiving a report listing objectsto which the user is included in an associate team object. In anotherembodiment, the entry may be selected by the user for receiving a reportlisting only objects with an open status to which the user is includedin an associate team object. In yet another embodiment, the entry may beselected by the user for receiving a report listing each case object anda team object associated therewith.

As shown in decision 212, it is determined whether a notification is tobe sent to the team. In one embodiment, the determination may be basedon a determination of whether a change has been made to the object. Forexample, if a change has been made to the object, it may be determinedthat a notification is to be sent to the team. Thus, the notificationmay optionally include information describing the change made to theobject (e.g. the type of change, the source of the change, the time ofthe change, etc.).

If it is determined that a notification is not to be sent to the team,the method 200 waits for a determination that a notification is to besent to the team. If, however, it is determined that a notification isto be sent to the team, the members of the team are identified and thenotification is sent to each member based on the roles. See operation214.

For example, the members of the team may be identified by retrieving themember identifiers from the team object. Further, the role associatedwith each member identifier via the team object may be identified fordetermining the notification settings for each member of the team. Inthis way, the members of the team may be sent the notification if theirassociated notification settings indicate that the notification shouldbe sent. Just by way of example, if it is determined a notification isto be sent to the team (decision 212) as a result of a particular typeof change to the object and that a member of the team associated withthe object is to receive notifications on that particular type of changeto the object, then the member may receive the notification. In thisway, members of the team associated with the object may be automaticallysent a notification based on their role when a change to the object isdetected.

FIG. 3 shows a system 300 for providing a team object in associationwith an object, in accordance with yet another embodiment. As an option,the system 300 may be implemented in the context of the functionality ofFIGS. 1-2. Of course, however, the system 300 may be implemented in anydesired environment. Again, the aforementioned definitions may applyduring the present description.

As shown, a plurality of members 302A and 302B are included in tablesbased on a categorization of such members 302A and 302B. For example,members 302A and 302B that are contacts are included in a first table,members 302A and 302B that are queues are included in a second table,members 302A and 302B that are users are included in a third table, etc.The members 302A and 302B include those that are available of inclusionin a team object associated with a team.

As also shown, an object 304 is provided that is capable of havingassociated therewith a team object 306. The object 304 is defined as anentity capable of having a team associated therewith. For example, asetting of the object 304 may be selected which indicates that theobject 304 is allowed to have a team associated therewith.

The team object 306 associated with the object 304 includes members 302Aand 302B defined using multiple different techniques. In one embodiment,the team object 306 includes identifiers of members selected (e.g. by auser) directly from the members 302B. In another embodiment, the teamobject 306 includes identifiers of members that are automaticallyincluded in a predefined team object 308, for example, by virtue of theteam object 306 referencing the predefined team object 308.

As shown, the predefined team object 308 includes identifiers of membersselected (e.g. by a user) directly from the members 302A. Thus, thepredefined team object 308 includes an identifier (e.g. name) of eachmember included there team represented by the predefined team object308. A member object 312 representing each member 302A is referenced, bythe member identifier included in the predefined team object 308. Thus,the team object 306 may be automatically populated with members based onthe member identifiers included in the predefined team object 308.Further, changes to the predefined team object 308 may be automaticallypropagated to the team object 306.

The member object 312 includes a role assigned to the member representedby the member object 312. The role may be selected from a plurality ofpredefined role objects 310. Upon selection of the role from thepredefined role objects 310, characteristics of the role may beautomatically populated into the member object 312, and thus furtherpopulated into the team object 306. The characteristics may include aname of the role, an access level (e.g. permissions) associated with therole, visibility of the member assigned to the role, notificationsettings for the member assigned to the role, etc. To this end, the teamobject 306 may be automatically populated with the roles indicated inthe member objects 312 based on the member identifiers included in theteam object 312 (e.g., as populated from the predefined team object 308and directly from the members 302B), for mapping each of such memberidentifiers with the role associated therewith, as defined by the memberobjects 312.

System Overview

FIG. 4 illustrates a block diagram of an environment 410 wherein anon-demand database service might be used. As an option, any of thepreviously described embodiments of the foregoing figures may or may notbe implemented in the context of the environment 410. Environment 410may include user systems 412, network 414, system 416, processor system417, application platform 418, network interface 420, tenant datastorage 422, system data storage 424, program code 426, and processspace 428. In other embodiments, environment 410 may not have all of thecomponents listed and/or may have other elements instead of, or inaddition to, those listed above.

Environment 410 is an environment in which an on-demand database serviceexists. User system 412 may be any machine or system that is used by auser to access a database user system. For example, any of user systems412 can be a handheld computing device, a mobile phone, a laptopcomputer, a work station, and/or a network of computing devices. Asillustrated in FIG. 4 (and in more detail in FIG. 5) user systems 412might interact via a network with an on-demand database service, whichis system 416.

An on-demand database service, such as system 416, is a database systemthat is made available to outside users that do not need to necessarilybe concerned with building and/or maintaining the database system, butinstead may be available for their use when the users need the databasesystem (e.g., on the demand of the users). Some on-demand databaseservices may store information from one or more tenants stored intotables of a common database image to form a multi-tenant database system(MTS). Accordingly, “on-demand database service 416” and “system 416”will be used interchangeably herein. A database image may include one ormore database objects. A relational database management system (RDMS) orthe equivalent may execute storage and retrieval of information againstthe database object(s). Application platform 418 may be a framework thatallows the applications of system 416 to run, such as the hardwareand/or software, e.g., the operating system. In an embodiment, on-demanddatabase service 416 may include an application platform 418 thatenables creation, managing and executing one or more applicationsdeveloped by the provider of the on-demand database service, usersaccessing the on-demand database service via user systems 412, or thirdparty application developers accessing the on-demand database servicevia user systems 412.

The users of user systems 412 may differ in their respective capacities,and the capacity of a particular user system 412 might be entirelydetermined by permissions (permission levels) for the current user. Forexample, where a salesperson is using a particular user system 412 tointeract with system 416, that user system has the capacities allottedto that salesperson. However, while an administrator is using that usersystem to interact with system 416, that user system has the capacitiesallotted to that administrator. In systems with a hierarchical rolemodel, users at one permission level may have access to applications,data, and database information accessible by a lower permission leveluser, but may not have access to certain applications, databaseinformation, and data accessible by a user at a higher permission level.Thus, different users will have different capabilities with regard toaccessing and modifying application and database information, dependingon a user's security or permission level.

Network 414 is any network or combination of networks of devices thatcommunicate with one another. For example, network 414 can be any one orany combination of a LAN (local area network), WAN (wide area network),telephone network, wireless network, point-to-point network, starnetwork, token ring network, hub network, or other appropriateconfiguration. As the most common type of computer network in currentuse is a TCP/IP (Transfer Control Protocol and Internet Protocol)network, such as the global internetwork of networks often referred toas the “Internet” with a capital “I,” that network will be used in manyof the examples herein. However, it should be understood that thenetworks that the present invention might use are not so limited,although TCP/IP is a frequently implemented protocol.

User systems 412 might communicate with system 416 using TCP/IP and, ata higher network level, use other common Internet protocols tocommunicate, such as HTTP, FTP, AFS, WAP, etc. In an example where HTTPis used, user system 412 might include an HTTP client commonly referredto as a “browser” for sending and receiving HTTP messages to and from anHTTP server at system 416. Such an HTTP server might be implemented asthe sole network interface between system 416 and network 414, but othertechniques might be used as well or instead. In some implementations,the interface between system 416 and network 414 includes load sharingfunctionality, such as round-robin HTTP request distributors to balanceloads and distribute incoming HTTP requests evenly over a plurality ofservers. At least as for the users that are accessing that server, eachof the plurality of servers has access to the MTS' data; however, otheralternative configurations may be used instead.

In one embodiment, system 416, shown in FIG. 4, implements a web-basedcustomer relationship management (CRM) system. For example, in oneembodiment, system 416 includes application servers configured toimplement and execute CRM software applications as well as providerelated data, code, forms, webpages and other information to and fromuser systems 412 and to store to, and retrieve from, a database systemrelated data, objects, and Webpage content. With a multi-tenant system,data for multiple tenants may be stored in the same physical databaseobject, however, tenant data typically is arranged so that data of onetenant is kept logically separate from that of other tenants so that onetenant does not have access to another tenant's data, unless such datais expressly shared. In certain embodiments, system 416 implementsapplications other than, or in addition to, a CRM application. Forexample, system 416 may provide tenant access to multiple hosted(standard and custom) applications, including a CRM application. User(or third party developer) applications, which may or may not includeCRM, may be supported by the application platform 418, which managescreation, storage of the applications into one or more database objectsand executing of the applications in a virtual machine in the processspace of the system 416.

One arrangement for elements of system 416 is shown in FIG. 5, includinga network interface 420, application platform 418, tenant data storage422 for tenant data 423, system data storage 424 for system dataaccessible to system 416 and possibly multiple tenants, program code 426for implementing various functions of system 416, and a process space428 for executing MTS system processes and tenant-specific processes,such as running applications as part of an application hosting service.Additional processes that may execute on system 416 include databaseindexing processes.

Several elements in the system shown in FIG. 4 include convention atwell-known elements that are explained only briefly here. For example,each user system 412 could include a desktop personal computer,workstation, laptop, PDA, car phone, or any wireless access protocol(WAP) enabled device or any other computing device capable ofinterfacing directly or indirectly to the Internet or other networkconnection. User system 412 typically runs an HTTP client, e.g., abrowsing program, such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser,Netscape's Navigator browser, Opera's browser, or a WAP-enabled browserin the case of a cell phone, PDA or other wireless device, or the like,allowing a user (e.g. subscriber of the multi-tenant database system) ofuser system 412 to access, process and view information, pages andapplications available to it from system 416 over network 414. Each usersystem 412 also typically includes one or more user interface devices,such as a keyboard, a mouse, trackball, touch pad, touch screen, pen orthe like, for interacting with a graphical user interface (GUI) providedby the browser on a display (e.g. a monitor screen, LCD display, etc.)in conjunction with pages, forms, applications and other informationprovided by system 416 or other systems or servers. For example, theuser interface device can be used to access data and applications hostedby system 416, and to perform searches on stored data, and otherwiseallow a user to interact with various GUI pages that may be presented toa user. As discussed above, embodiments are suitable for use with theInternet, which refers to a specific global internetwork of networks.However, it should be understood that other networks can be used insteadof the Internet, such as an intranet, an extranet, a virtual privatenetwork (VPN), a non-TCP/IP based network, any LAN or WAN or the like.

According to one embodiment, each user system 412 and all of itscomponents are operator configurable using applications, such as abrowser, including computer code run using a central processing unitsuch as an Intel Pentium® processor or the like. Similarly, system 416(and additional instances of an MTS, where more than one is present) andall of their components might be operator configurable usingapplication(s) including computer code to run using a central processingunit such as processor system 417 of FIG. 4, which may include an IntelPentium® processor or the like, and/or multiple processor units. Acomputer program product embodiment includes a machine-readable storagemedium (media) having instructions stored thereon/in which can be usedto program a computer to perform any of the processes of the embodimentsdescribed herein. Computer code for operating and configuring system 416to intercommunicate and to process webpages, applications and other dataand media content as described herein are preferably downloaded andstored on a hard disk, but the entire program code, or portions thereof,may also be stored in any other volatile or non-volatile memory mediumor device as is well known, such as a ROM or RAM, or provided on anymedia capable of storing program code, such as any type of rotatingmedia including floppy disks, optical discs, digital versatile disk(DVD), compact disk (CD), microdrive, and magneto-optical disks, andmagnetic or optical cards, nanosystems (including molecular memory ICs),or any type of media or device suitable for storing instructions and/ordata. Additionally, the entire program code, or portions thereof, may betransmitted and downloaded from a software source over a transmissionmedium, e.g., over the Internet, or from another server, as is wellknown, or transmitted over any other conventional network connection asis well known (e.g. extranet, VPN, LAN, etc.) using any communicationmedium and protocols (e.g. TCP/IP, HTTP, HTTPS, Ethernet, etc.) as arewell known. It will also be appreciated that computer code forimplementing embodiments of the present invention can be implemented inany programming language that can be executed on a client system and/orserver or server system such as, for example, C, C++, HTML, any othermarkup language, Java™, JavaScript, ActiveX, any other scriptinglanguage, such as VBScript, and many other programming languages as arewell known may be used. (Java™ is a trademark of Sun Microsystems,Inc.).

According to one embodiment, each system 416 is configured to providewebpages, forms, applications, data and media content to user (client)systems 412 to support the access by user systems 412 as tenants ofsystem 416. As such, system 416 provides security mechanisms to keepeach tenant's data separate unless the data is shared. If more than oneMTS is used, they may be located in close proximity to one another (e.g.in a server farm located in a single building or campus), or they may bedistributed at locations remote from one another (e.g. one or moreservers located in city A and one or more servers located in city B). Asused herein, each MTS could include one or more logically and/orphysically connected servers distributed locally or across one or moregeographic locations. Additionally, the term “server” is meant toinclude a computer system, including processing hardware and processspace(s), and an associated storage system and database application(e.g. OODBMS or RDBMS) as is well known in the art. It should also beunderstood that “server system” and “server” are often usedinterchangeably herein. Similarly, the database object described hereincan be implemented as single databases, a distributed database, acollection of distributed databases, a database with redundant online oroffline backups or other redundancies, etc., and might include adistributed database or storage network and associated processingintelligence.

FIG. 5 also illustrates environment 410. However, in FIG. 5 elements ofsystem 416 and various interconnections in an embodiment are furtherillustrated. FIG. 5 shows that user system 412 may include processorsystem 412A, memory system 412B, input system 412C, and output system412D. FIG. 5 shows network 414 and system 416. FIG. 5 also shows thatsystem 416 may include tenant data storage 422, tenant data 423, systemdata storage 424, system data 425, User Interface (UI) 530. ApplicationProgram Interface (API) 532, PL/SOQL 534, save routines 536, applicationsetup mechanism 538, applications servers 500 ₁-500 _(N), system processspace 502, tenant process spaces 504, tenant management process space510, tenant storage area 512, user storage 514, and application metadata516. In other embodiments, environment 410 may not have the sameelements as those listed above and/or may have other elements insteadof, or in addition to, those listed above.

User system 412, network 414, system 416, tenant data storage 422, andsystem data storage 424 were discussed above in FIG. 4. Regarding usersystem 412, processor system 412A may be any combination of one or moreprocessors. Memory system 412B may be any combination of one or morememory devices, short term, and/or long term memory. Input system 412Cmay be any combination of input devices, such as one or more keyboards,mice, trackballs, scanners, cameras, and/or interfaces to networks.Output system 412D may be any combination of output devices, such as oneor more monitors, printers, and/or interfaces to networks. As shown byFIG. 5, system 416 may include a network interface 420 (of FIG. 4)implemented as a set of HTTP application servers 500, an applicationplatform 418, tenant data storage 422, and system data storage 424. Alsoshown is system process space 502, including individual tenant processspaces 504 and a tenant management process space 510. Each applicationserver 500 may be configured to tenant data storage 422 and the tenantdata 423 therein, and system data storage 424 and the system data 425therein to serve requests of user systems 412. The tenant data 423 mightbe divided into individual tenant storage areas 512, which can be eithera physical arrangement and/or a logical arrangement of data. Within eachtenant storage area 512, user storage 514 and application metadata 516might be similarly allocated for each user. For example, a copy of auser's most recently used (MRU) items might be stored to user storage514. Similarly, a copy of MRU items for an entire organization that is atenant might be stored to tenant storage area 512. A UI 530 provides auser interface and an API 532 provides an application programmerinterface to system 416 resident processes to users and/or developers atuser systems 412. The tenant data and the system data may be stored invarious databases, such as one or more Oracle™ databases.

Application platform 418 includes an application set-up mechanism 538that supports application developers' creation and management ofapplications, which may be saved as metadata into tenant data storage422 by save routines 536 for execution by subscribers as one or moretenant process spaces 504 managed by tenant management process 510 forexample. Invocations to such applications may be coded using PL/SOQL 534that provides a programming language style interface extension to API532. A detailed description of some PL/SOQL language embodiments isdiscussed in commonly owned U.S. Provisional Patent Application60/828,192 entitled, “PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE METHOD AND SYSTEM FOREXTENDING APIS TO EXECUTE IN CONJUNCTION WITH DATABASE APIS,” by CraigWeissman, filed Oct. 4, 2006, which is incorporated in its entiretyherein for all purposes. Invocations to applications may be detected byone or more system processes, which manage retrieving applicationmetadata 516 for the subscriber making the invocation and executing themetadata as an application in a virtual machine.

Each application server 500 may be communicably coupled to databasesystems, e.g., having access to system data 425 and tenant data 423, viaa different network connection. For example, one application server 500₁ might be coupled via the network 414 (e.g., the Internet), anotherapplication server 500 _(N-1) might be coupled via a direct networklink, and another application server 500 _(N) might be coupled by yet adifferent network connection. Transfer Control Protocol and InternetProtocol (TCP/IP) are typical protocols for communicating betweenapplication servers 500 and the database system. However, it will beapparent to one skilled in the art that other transport protocols may beused to optimize the system depending on the network interconnect used.

In certain embodiments, each application server 500 is configured tohandle requests for any user associated with any organization that is atenant. Because it is desirable to be able to add and remove applicationservers from the server pool at any time for any reason, there ispreferably no server affinity for a user and/or organization to aspecific application server 500. In one embodiment, therefore, aninterface system implementing a load balancing function (e.g., an F5Big-IP load balancer) is communicably coupled between the applicationservers 500 and the user systems 412 to distribute requests to theapplication servers 500. In one embodiment, the load balancer uses aleast connections algorithm to route user requests to the applicationservers 500. Other examples of load balancing algorithms, such as roundrobin and observed response time, also can be used. For example, incertain embodiments, three consecutive requests from the same user couldhit three different application servers 500, and three requests fromdifferent users could hit the same application server 500. In thismanner, system 416 is multi-tenant, wherein system 416 handles storageof, and access to, different objects, data and applications acrossdisparate users and organizations.

As an example of storage, one tenant might be a company that employs asales force where each salesperson uses system 416 to manage their salesprocess. Thus, a user might maintain contact data, leads data, customerfollow-up data, performance data, goals and progress data, etc., allapplicable to that user's personal sales process (e.g., in tenant datastorage 422). In an example of a MTS arrangement, since all of the dataand the applications to access, view, modify, report, transmit,calculate, etc., can be maintained and accessed by a user system havingnothing more than network access, the user can manage his or her salesefforts and cycles from any of many different user systems. For example,if a salesperson is visiting a customer and the customer has Internetaccess in their lobby, the salesperson can obtain critical updates as tothat customer while waiting for the customer to arrive in the lobby.

While each user's data might be separate from other users' dataregardless of the employers of each user, some data might beorganization-wide data shared or accessible by a plurality of users orall of the users for a given organization that is a tenant. Thus, theremight be some data structures managed by system 416 that are allocatedat the tenant level while other data structures might be managed at theuser level. Because an MTS might support multiple tenants includingpossible competitors, the MTS should have security protocols that keepdata, applications, and application use separate. Also, because manytenants may opt for access to an MTS rather than maintain their ownsystem, redundancy, up-time and backup are additional functions that maybe implemented in the MTS. In addition to user-specific data andtenant-specific data, system 416 might also maintain system level datausable by multiple tenants or other data. Such system level data mightinclude industry reports, news, postings, and the like that are sharableamong tenants.

In certain embodiments, user systems 412 (which may be client systems)communicate with application servers 500 to request and updatesystem-level and tenant-level data from system 416 that may requiresending one or more queries to tenant data storage 422 and/or systemdata storage 424. System 416 (e.g., an application server 500 in system416) automatically generates one or more SQL statements (e.g., one ormore SQL queries) that are designed to access the desired information.System data storage 424 may generate query plans to access the requesteddata from the database.

Each database can generally be viewed as a collection of objects, suchas a set of logical tables, containing data fitted into predefinedcategories. A “table” is one representation of a data object, and may beused herein to simplify the conceptual description of objects and customobjects according to the present invention. It should be understood that“table” and “object” may be used interchangeably herein. Each tablegenerally contains one or more data categories logically arranged ascolumns or fields in a viewable schema. Each row or record of a tablecontains an instance of data for each category defined by the fields.For example, a CRM database may include a table that describes acustomer with fields for basic contact information such as name,address, phone number, fax number, etc. Another table might describe apurchase order, including fields for information such as customer,product, sale price, date, etc. In some multi-tenant database systems,standard entity tables might be provided for use by all tenants. For CRMdatabase applications, such standard entities might include tables forAccount, Contact, Lead, and Opportunity data, each containingpre-defined fields. It should be understood that the word “entity” mayalso be used interchangeably herein with “object” and “table”.

In some multi-tenant database systems, tenants may be allowed to createand store custom objects, or they may be allowed to customize standardentities or objects for example by creating custom fields for standardobjects, including custom index fields. U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/817,161, filed Apr. 2, 2004, entitled “CUSTOM ENTITIES AND FIELDS INA MULTI-TENANT DATABASE SYSTEM,” which is hereby incorporated herein byreference, teaches systems and methods for creating custom objects aswell as customizing standard objects in a multi-tenant database system.In certain embodiments, for example, all custom entity data rows arestored in a single multi-tenant physical table, which may containmultiple logical tables per organization. It is transparent to customersthat their multiple “tables” are in fact stored in one large table orthat their data may be stored in the same table as the data of othercustomers.

It should be noted that any of the different embodiments describedherein may or may not be equipped with any one or more of the featuresset forth in one or more of the following published applications:US2003/0233404, titled “OFFLINE SIMULATION OF ONLINE SESSION BETWEENCLIENT AND SERVER,” filed Nov. 4, 2002; US2004/0210909, titled “JAVAOBJECT CACHE SERVER FOR DATABASES,” filed Apr. 17, 2003, now issued U.S.Pat. No. 7,209,929; US2005/0065925, titled “QUERY OPTIMIZATION IN AMULTI-TENANT DATABASE SYSTEM,” filed Sep. 23, 2003; US2005/0223022,titled “CUSTOM ENTITIES AND FIELDS IN A MULTI-TENANT DATABASE SYSTEM,”filed Apr. 2, 2004; US2005/0283478, titled “SOAP-BASED WEB SERVICES IN AMULTI-TENANT DATABASE SYSTEM,” filed Jun. 16, 2004; US2006/0206834,titled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR IMPLEMENTING MULTI-APPLICATION TABS ANDTAB SETS,” filed Mar. 8, 2005; and/or US2008/0010243, titled “METHOD ANDSYSTEM FOR PUSHING DATA TO A PLURALITY OF DEVICES IN AN ON-DEMANDSERVICE ENVIRONMENT,” filed Jun. 1, 2007; which are each incorporatedherein by reference in their entirety for all purposes.

While the invention has been described by way of example and in terms ofthe specific embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention isnot limited to the disclosed embodiments. To the contrary, it isintended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements aswould be apparent to those skilled in the art. Therefore, the scope ofthe appended claims should be accorded the broadest interpretation so asto encompass all such modifications and similar arrangements.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A computer program product embodied on anon-transitory computer readable medium, the computer program productincluding computer code adapted to be executed by a computer to performa method comprising: storing, by a system having hardware and softwareshared over a network by multiple customers of the system, an object forone of the customers, wherein a setting of the object indicates that theobject is allowed to have a team associated therewith; receiving, by thesystem from a user associated with the customer, a request to add a teamto the object, wherein the team includes at least two members, the atleast two members including a first member that is associated with thecustomer by being a user of the customer and being provided access tothe system via a subscription of the customer with the system, and asecond member that is not associated with the customer and that is acontact of the first member, wherein: full access is provided to thefirst member based on the first member being the user of the customer,the full access including permission for the first member to definemembers of the team, and less than full access is provided to the secondmember based on the second member being the contact of the first member,the less than full access denying the second member permission to definemembers of the team; and creating, by the system, a team object, whereinthe team object includes an identifier of the at least two members ofthe team; associating the team object with the object for adding theteam to the object, by including in the system a reference between theteam object and the object; identifying, by the system, a modificationmade to the object; in response to the identification of themodification made to the object, identifying, by the system, the teamobject associated with the object; in response to the identification ofthe team object associated with the object, identifying from the teamobject, by the system, the at least two members of the team; andnotifying, by the system, the identified at least two members of theteam of the modification made to the object using a notificationassociated with the object, such that the at least two members of theteam are notified based on the at least two members being identifiedfrom the team object.
 2. The computer program product of claim 1,wherein the computer program product is operable such that the teamobject is created by defining the team requested to be added to theobject.
 3. The computer program product of claim 2, wherein the teamobject defines the team by defining the at least one member of the team.4. The computer program product of claim 3, wherein the team objectdefines the team by assigning a role to each member of the team.
 5. Thecomputer program product of claim 4, wherein the role definesnotification settings for the member.
 6. The computer program product ofclaim 5, wherein the notification settings indicate actions associatedwith the object of which the member is to be notified.
 7. The computerprogram product of claim 6, wherein the notification is sent based onthe notification settings.
 8. The computer program product of claim 1,wherein the computer program product is operable such that the teamobject is created from a predefined team object, the predefined teamobject including a template of members and roles assigned to each of themembers.
 9. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein thecomputer program product is operable such that changes made to thepredefined team object are automatically propagated to the created teamobject.
 10. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein thecomputer program product is operable such that the team object iscreated based on predefined assignment rules indicating for the object apredefined member to be automatically included in the team object. 11.The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the modificationincludes an electronic message added to the object.
 12. The computerprogram product of claim 1, wherein the object is of a particular type,such that the object stores data of the particular type.
 13. Thecomputer program product of claim 1, wherein based on the associationbetween the team object and the object, a selectable entry is providedon a user interface of the system, and when the selectable entry isselected by one of the members of the team, a report is provided to themember listing at least in part the object.
 14. The computer programproduct of claim 13, wherein the report lists each object having anassociated team object that includes the identifier of the member. 15.An apparatus, comprising: a processor of a system for: storing, by thesystem having hardware and software shared over a network by multiplecustomers of the system, an object for one of the customers, wherein asetting of the object indicates that the object is allowed to have ateam associated therewith; receiving, by the system from a userassociated with the customer, a request to add a team to the object,wherein the team includes at least two members, the at least two membersincluding a first member that is associated with the customer by being auser of the customer and being provided access to the system via asubscription of the customer with the system, and a second member thatis not associated with the customer and that is a contact of the firstmember, wherein: full access is provided to the first member based onthe first member being the user of the customer, the full accessincluding permission for the first member to define members of the team,and less than full access is provided to the second member based on thesecond member being the contact of the first member, the less than fullaccess denying the second member permission to define members of theteam; and creating, by the system, a team object, wherein the teamobject includes an identifier of the at least two members of the team;associating the team object with the object for adding the team to theobject, by including in the system a reference between the team objectand the object; identifying, by the system, a modification made to theobject; in response to the identification of the modification made tothe object, identifying, by the system, the team object associated withthe object; in response to the identification of the team objectassociated with the object, identifying from the team object, by thesystem, the at least two members of the team; and notifying, by thesystem, the identified at least two members of the team of themodification made to the object using a notification associated with theobject, such that the at least two members of the team are notifiedbased on the at least two members being identified from the team object.16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the processor is coupled tomemory via a bus.
 17. A method, comprising: storing, by a system havinghardware and software shared over a network by multiple customers of thesystem, an object for one of the customers, wherein a setting of theobject indicates that the object is allowed to have a team associatedtherewith; receiving, by the system from a user associated with thecustomer, a request to add a team to the object, wherein the teamincludes at least two members, the at least two members including afirst member that is associated with the customer by being a user of thecustomer and being provided access to the system via a subscription ofthe customer with the system, and a second member that is not associatedwith the customer and that is a contact of the first member, wherein:full access is provided to the first member based on the first memberbeing the user of the customer, the full access including permission forthe first member to define members of the team, and less than fullaccess is provided to the second member based on the second member beingthe contact of the first member, the less than full access denying thesecond member permission to define members of the team; and creating, bythe system, a team object, wherein the team object includes anidentifier of the at least two members of the team; associating the teamobject with the object for adding the team to the object, by includingin the system a reference between the team object and the object;identifying, by the system, a modification made to the object; inresponse to the identification of the modification made to the object,identifying, by the system, the team object associated with the object;in response to the identification of the team object associated with theobject, identifying from the team object, by the system, the at leasttwo members of the team; and notifying, by the system, the identified atleast two members of the team of the modification made to the objectusing a notification associated with the object, such that the at leasttwo members of the team are notified based on the at least two membersbeing identified from the team object.